Mediatizing Europe While Overlooking the European Election: The Paradox of the Italian Case

Although the Italian case appears as an almost paradigmatic example of the “second order” elections theory (Reif, Schmitt 1980), it also highlights the necessity of studying the European election campaign in a more complex way, by investigating the various contradictions that exist below the surface of an (almost totally domestic) fight for or against Berlusconi’s leadership. There are three contradictions, in particular, at the heart of this chapter. Primarily, there is the evidence of the imbalance between the considerable attention paid by the media systems to Europe and the very limited coverage conversely allowed to the electoral campaign. Secondly, the reader is reminded that, in Italy, the definition of these as second order elections is, at least in part, questioned by the importance that even this competition assumes within the framework of the permanent campaign. Lastly, it is pointed out that, if at a national level, little was said about the electoral campaign, at local levels, the attention paid was noticeably greater.